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These news clips on global space news are provided by the Coalition for Space Exploration for distribution by the Space Foundation to our constituents. You can also subscribe to receive a daily email version.

CSExtra – Tuesday, October 16, 2012

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Tuesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related developments from around the world. The National Research Council selects a former U. S. Secretary of Defense and a prominent astronomer to lead a long range study of U. S. human space exploration initiatives. Scientists point to the solar wind as a source of water on the moon. The European Union enforces a sanction against Iran on satellite communications. Solar systems appear to favor a pancake like shape. Uranus may host a moon with a subterranean ocean. Astronomers discover an alien planetary system lit by four stars. NASA’s Deputy Administrator Lori Garver checks in on Lockheed Martin projects in Denver, Colo. Morocco played catcher’s mitt to a rare meteorite with a Martian origin.

1. From Spacepolicyonline.com: The National Research Council on Monday named co-chairs for its independent look at the future of U.S. human spaceflight, a study required by Congress under the provisions of the 2010 NASA Authorization Act. The leadership roles fall to William Perry, a former Secretary of Defense, now at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, and Jonathan Lunine, who is a professor at Cornell University and Director of the university’s Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. The study, expected to take 22 months to complete, will look at justifying and shaping an agenda extending as far out as 2030.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/news/perry-lunine-to-co-chair-nrc-human-spaceflight-study-committee

A. In “A space policy to do list for after the election,” TSR editor Jeff Foust highlights issues likely to face a lame duck Congress in the aftermath of the November elections. Each issue could have a significant impacts on U. S. space policy. The first is “sequestration,” the looming federal spending cuts some experts liken to a “fiscal cliff” that includes an 8 percent reduction in NASA spending. The others include a end of year expiration of commercial launch indemnification, a provision in FAA launch licensing that protects launch providers against large third party damage claims, and export control. The latter restricts sales of satellite and satellite components included on the U. S. Munitions List to foreign buyers.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2171/1

B. In “Is it time to create a Mars Exploration Directorate,” Chris Carberry, executive director of Explore Mars, Inc., urges a closer institutional coordination of NASA’s Mars exploration activities. These are activities that serve the current administration’s goals of launching a human exploration mission in the next two to three decades as well as robotic endeavors. Carberry writes in response to recent mission options outlined by NASA’s Mars Program Planning Group. The planning group was formed after the White House called for Mars program spending cuts in the agency’s yet-to-be-passed 2013 budget.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2172/1

Brought to you by the Coalition for Space Exploration, CSExtra is a daily compilation of space industry news selected from hundreds of online media resources. The Coalition is not the author or reporter of any of the stories appearing in CSExtra and does not control and is not responsible for the content of any of these stories. The content available through CSExtra contains links to other websites and domains which are wholly independent of the Coalition, and the Coalition makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of the information contained in any such site or domain and does not pre-screen or approve any content. The Coalition does not endorse or receive any type of compensation from the included media outlets and is not responsible or liable in any way for any content of CSExtra or for any loss, damage or injury incurred as a result of any content appearing in CSExtra. For information on the Coalition, visit www.spacecoalition.com or contact us via e-mail at [email protected].